secretary to Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty (1911–1915). After several full and frank exchanges of views with Churchill, de Chair was denied the command of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron that had been promised as his next appointment. De Chair received instead the post of Admiral of the Training Service, something of a snub, which included eight ageing Edgar-class cruisers built from 1889 to 1894. Under a 1913 war plan, the 10th Cruiser Squadron (10th CS) and 11th Cruiser Squadrons were to close the northabout route past the British Isles between Orkney, Shetland, Iceland and Norway but in 1914, the 11th Cruiser Squadron, as Cruiser Force E, was sent to the Persian Gulf, leaving the 10th Cruiser Squadron to make do. Mobilisation orders were issued by the Admiralty on 19 July 1914 and on 3 August, de Chair was ordered to take the Edgars to Scapa Flow in the Orkneys. The cruisers were ordered from their ports and en route the 10th CS captured SS William Behrens a German ship carrying timber which was sent to port under a prize crew. and made a delayed arrival on 6 August having chased , a German liner carrying precious metals, sending it into Falmouth. On 7 August Edgar sank two German trawlers which had tried to run instead of stopping when ordered. The seas between Scotland and Norway were notoriously dangerous; in the summer, mist and sudden high winds were common, for the rest of the year there were gales, stormy seas and long nights, with short, dull days under leaden skies. It was common for winds to reach force 9 or 10 on the Beaufort scale, raising seas higher than ships' masts. A local phenomenon, lumps, were waves which had superimposed and which, in a force 10 gale, arrived without warning, damaging ships and occasionally sinking them. The 10th CS reached full strength on 7 August and commenced operations to, The Edgars were first-class protected cruisers, old, Victorian ships. The ships carried two 9.2-inch (234 mm) guns and ten 6-inch (150 mm) quick-firers for the ships to fire broadside into opposing ships. The Edgars had been built to patrol the seas, protecting trade and overawing recalcitrant colonials. By 1914 they were in no condition to spend long periods in such dangerous seas; many of the crews were recalled pensioners, somewhat surprised to return to service. De Chair established a